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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22904329">Dry The Rain From My Beaten Face</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theyna_Shipper/pseuds/Theyna_Shipper'>Theyna_Shipper</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TlJ (And Post TLJ) "What-ifs" [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, BUT DAD I LOVE HIM, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting all the good ones in, Hand Touch, Luke is a better person, Post-TLJ, Redeemed Ben Solo, Reylo Kisses, TLJ Edit, Throne Room Scene, You know the scene, all the ones we deserved but didn't get, elevator scene, lol i cant tag, so many, tlj - Freeform, too - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:28:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,541</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22904329</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theyna_Shipper/pseuds/Theyna_Shipper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A reimagining of the hand touch scene, in which Luke interrupts just a few moments later, by which time Rey and Ben are too busy to notice him, and he is forced to reconsider Rey's connection to him; and how this impacts later events. </p><p>Or, TLJ but with all the Reylo kisses we almost-didn't get.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TlJ (And Post TLJ) "What-ifs" [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>115</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Hand Touch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks for reading, please like and comment! Will probably be a three or four shot, not too long. I appreciate any and all feedback.</p><p>I feel like I'm that car meme and instead of updating my WIPs I'm writing another Reylo canonverse oneshot AU.</p><p>Title taken from "Come Cover Me" by Nightwish.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I'd never felt so alone in my life," Rey murmurs, the levelness of her tone nowhere close to reflecting the inner turbulence of her mind.</p>
<p>"You're not alone," he says, his voice dark but reassuring. </p>
<p>"Neither are you." Her voice hangs in the air a moment, his face impassive. "It's not too late." Slowly, she lifts her hands from the folds of the blanket, reaching out towards him. She does not fully bridge the gap, leaving it to him to come closer. </p>
<p>He looks down at her hand, his eyes betraying only the slightest hint of emotion. Then, he removes his dark glove. She's sure it's never left his hand in front of another person until now. He reaches it out towards her. </p>
<p>Their hands shake as they slowly move closer and closer. Rey gasps sharply when their fingertips brush. He is thousands of miles away, yet she can feel his skin and his warmth as though he were right beside her. Their hands hover like that for a moment, barely touching, but bridging the vast gap between them. </p>
<p>Rey sees shadows before her eyes, of her and him and of the future. He stands beside her, shielding her from an onslaught, lending her his strength. </p>
<p>He sees the shadows too, but different ones. Rey, wielding his orange saber, striking down a foe that threatens them both. Their bodies are framed in dark obsidian. </p>
<p>Then slowly, desperately slowly, he moves closer. Now the palms of their hands clasp. Now her hands runs the length of his forearm. Now he kneels in front of her perch. Now she reaches up to cup his face. His hand rests next to her leg on the bench. </p>
<p>Rey's thumb runs the length of his scar, the one she gave him when they dueled in the forest. The duel seems an eternity ago, and yet like it only just happened. She's seen so much more of him than the girl who'd picked up a saber for the first time could ever have possible imagined. </p>
<p>She pulls herself closer, inexplicably drawn to his broken face and his stormy eyes. Now their foreheads touch, and the shadows before her eyes dance in a beautiful display. Ben is whole and at her side. </p>
<p>Now the shadows in his eyes turn to face each other, his hand rising to her just as it did a minute ago. She lifts hers up in an arc that almost meets his. The obsidian turns to grey. </p>
<p>Now she presses her lips to his, sealing him in a closeness neither has ever known before. The shadows explode in color before in her mind. Ben, standing beside her under the flags of a New Order, neither the First Order nor the Resistance. Ben, showing her another side of the Force and mixing their powers in balance. The pair of them, embracing as they do now, in a pastel meadow on a fertile planet. </p>
<p>His shadows morph, too, to see Rey standing by his side, wielding a pale gold saber, his a deep royal purple. She stands before a crowd, speaking and leading with him. She gives him a home by her side, one no one has ever given him before. </p>
<p><i>Do you see this?</i> she wonders, as if to ask him through the strength of their bond.</p>
<p><i>Yes,</i> she hears back.</p>
<p>She pulls their lips apart, breaking off the kiss that had been firm but chaste. "Rey," he breathes against the infinitesimally small space between them. </p>
<p>She leans into him again, pressing her lips into his into a kiss that is far from chaste. There are no more shadows, just her, and him, falling into each other in the tiny hut. </p>
<p>"Ben," she groans softly into his throat. She never wants to let this feeling go, a feeling that she can't even fathom a word for. </p>
<p>*****************</p>
<p>Luke Skywalker senses darkness coming from Rey, the same darkness he had watched consume young Ben Solo. He cannot let the galaxy lose another piece of the Force to the Dark side. </p>
<p>As he runs to Rey, to stop her from letting the Darkness from consuming her, he feels Kylo Ren's presence in the force, and wonders if he is already too late. </p>
<p>When he rips aside the curtain to Rey's hut, he is greeted by a scene he could not have imagined. His nephew kneels, unmasked before Rey, his ungloved hand resting behind her neck. She cups his face, holding it against hers in a passionate kiss. </p>
<p>He wants to stop the star-crossed tryst, to cut off Rey's communion with the Dark. But as his words catch in his throat, he realizes that this is not only her communion with the Dark, but Ben's communion with the light. The balance of which Rey spoke. </p>
<p>He runs from the hut, runs to one of the island's many lonely cliffs, falling against the ground in a strange mixture of confusion and hope.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Ach-To</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Direct continuation from the previous chapter</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for the feedback! Really enjoying writing this fic even if it is quite self-indlugent. I hope you all continue to enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey slowly breaks off the kiss, breathing in the warmth between them. His hand has crept up behind her neck, and their foreheads touch. </p><p>"You're wrong," he says suddenly, breaking the delicate silence. "It's too late for me."</p><p>"It's never too late," Rey insists. "Darth Vader, the man you looked up to when you built the Order. Right before he died- he came back to the Light to save his son. It wasn't too late for him. You've still got your whole life, to make this right again."</p><p>He looks into her pleading eyes, desperately wanting it to be true. But he fears the dark has already consumed him. "I don't deserve your faith," he murmurs.</p><p>"But you have it."</p><p>His voice is scarcely above a whisper. "Save me."</p><p>Suddenly her face disappears, and he is alone again, kneeling on the floors of his ship. A single thread of her blanket clings to his hand, and he tucks it into his pocket. Tracing his fingers over his lips, where Rey's had been mere moments ago, he slowly brings himself into his feet, still half in another world. He sits down on his bed, but will not fall asleep for a long time. </p><p>*</p><p>Cold air hits the back of her neck, and the bond fades, taking him away. "Ben!" she calls. "BEN!"</p><p>A draft blows in, and she sees that someone has pulled the curtain aside from her door. <i>Luke.</i></p><p>She follows the island's path, up to a cliff, where Luke is sitting on a rock. </p><p>"You failed him," she calls. </p><p>"You opened yourself to the Dark side for a pair of pretty eyes!"</p><p><i>A pair of pretty eyes.</i> "You thought his choice was already made! It wasn't."</p><p>"I couldn't have killed him."</p><p>This takes Rey by surprise. "What do you call standing over him with your saber lit, then?"</p><p>"I thought I would. I thought I had to stop the darkness stirring inside him. But he was only a child. I realized this a moment too late." He sighs heavily. "The last time I saw him, I saw a frightened boy whose master had failed him."</p><p>"I'm going to find him. It's not too late for him."</p><p>"Passion is a path to the Dark side," he insists. But she doesn't see how Ben's tender caresses, how his shaking hands and pleading face are a path to the Dark side. They are the marks of a person still feeling the pull to the light.</p><p>She shakes her head. "That was the old Jedi's mistake."</p><p>She runs down the path and to the Falcon, and explains to Chewie why she has to find Ben on the <i>Supremacy.</i> He, thankfully, does not judge or interrogate, but trusts her and helps her, showing her the escape pods on the Falcon. </p><p>Which is how she finds herself landing in a box on the supremacy, arms crossed and clutching the saber. </p><p>*</p><p>Ben feels her coming before she arrives. And he knows what he has to do once she arrives. But how he is going to do it- he is afraid and alone, and needs her here more than anything. </p><p>He thinks often of what happened in the hut, but guards these memories from Snoke's onslaught. Rey must be protected. </p><p>He cannot rationalize it, why Rey hand extended her hand to him- nor why he'd taken it. Why she had kissed him and held him and let him come to her. Why she was trying to save him, and why he felt this calling to him. </p><p>Only that he regrets none of it. </p><p>And now she arrives on the deck of the <i>Supremacy</i> in one of the Falcon's escape pods, dressed in grey, her arms crossed over her chest. His heart pounds when she looks him in the eye. Both try their hardest not to betray any emotion, and the others on the ship do not see the longing in their eyes. </p><p>They desperately fail to keep their feelings from each other.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The "pair of pretty eyes" line was probably one of our greatest losses in TLJ. Here I bring it back.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Elevator</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Do I need to tell you?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sometimes your grandfather isn't the old man who gave you lightning powers, it's the old man you beat with a stick because he made your emo boyfriend sad. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the feedback! Please enjoy.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her confidence wavers when he claps the binders on her wrist. She'd been so sure that night in the hut, but now his dark demeanor reminds her that she far from the strongest influence on him.</p>
<p>He does not look at her again, leads her wordlessly into the elevator. </p>
<p>"You don't have to do this, Ben." He is silent, and she moves closer. "When we touched, when we kissed, I <i>saw</i> your future. You saw it to. You will turn. You will not bow before Snoke."</p>
<p>"That's not quite what I saw," he whispers. </p>
<p>It hadn't occurred to her that his visions might be different then hers. </p>
<p>"There is more to this than dark or light," he continues. Because he saw grey, a balance, unity. </p>
<p>His eyes flicker down to her lips, unable to stop himself from thinking of how they had danced across his. Rey locks his gaze. He stops the elevator to speak with her. </p>
<p>Perhaps all he needs is a reminder of what they shared, of what they could yet be. </p>
<p>She leans forward and again presses a kiss against his lips. She only means it to be quick, but she is rapidly consumed by a hunger for his touch. She leans into the kiss, pressing desperately against him. </p>
<p>His hands slide down to where hers are bound, undoing the cuffs and letting them crash to the floor. She reaches up to twist her hands into his long, thick hair. He grabs her by the waste, pulling her close. </p>
<p>Rey parts her lips slightly, letting Ben's tongue sweep the inside of her mouth. They stumble backwards into the wall, pulling Rey almost off her feet. The kiss they shared lass night was passionate, but this is <i>fiery</i>.</p>
<p>But he drops her abruptly, her lips still throbbing for more. "I can't do this," he says, reaching down and clapping the binders back on her wrists. He presses a button on the elevator, leading Rey into Snoke's throne room. </p>
<p>**********</p>
<p>He knew, from the moment their hands touched, that he had to betray Snoke. Because Snoke would never let him have Rey, and he needs her more than anything. But guarding his mind has been difficult, and Rey will find it even harder to block Snoke's onslaught. With the taste of the kiss fresh upon their lips, they were both vulnerable. </p>
<p>He is forced to watch as Rey is tortured at Snoke's hands; her cries ring in Ben's ears. Every muscle in his body screams to run to her, to stop it. But he cannot. </p>
<p>And now she kneels at his feet, staring up at him as Snoke orders her death. There is no fear in her eyes; she locks his confidence and trust. He feels her scarcely deserves it. </p>
<p>But no one but him sees the Skywalker saber twist upon the arm of the throne. No one sees him prepare it has he lifts his own. </p>
<p>Snoke never even sees the weapon that strikes him down, only feels it cut him for a moment. </p>
<p>The saber flies effortlessly into Rey's hand, and she locks his gaze. The scarlet figures of the Praetorian guards advance in the corner of his eye. </p>
<p>
  <i>Are you ready?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Bring it on.</i>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's short, but the next one will be longer.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Throne Room</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The duel, featuring trademark ThighGrab, among other things.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The pair fights seamlessly, back to back, feeling each other’s moves as they happen, holding their own against the guards, despite being woefully outnumbered. There are moments when Ben looks back to make sure Rey is alright, and when Rey turns away from her enemies for a moment to reach out and protect Ben. They’re in each other’s heads, but it’s not unpleasant or invasive. It feels <i>right</i>, to be this coordinated. </p>
<p>There’s a moment, when Rey is pushed backwards by one of the Praetorian guards, but Ben is right behind her, and she grabs him for the support, barely even thinking until later that she <i>grabbed his freaking thigh</i>. But as soon as they touch, he stabilizes for her, pushing her backwards. She converts her moment into a well-placed kick, leaning against his flattened back. </p>
<p>At some point, they are separated across the field, but Rey is every moment aware of him, that he is still fighting behind her. </p>
<p>And even when he is only fighting three, where she is fighting one, Ben looks back at her to make sure she is safe. </p>
<p>It’s intense, and scary, and there are moments of near failure. But Rey finally rises as her foe falls. Then she looks across the room to see Ben, with the spear of a Praetorian guard at his throat. </p>
<p>“BEN!” She screams, throwing her saber to him. He catches it dexterously, igniting it as he does so, and killing the guard behind him.</p>
<p>They gasp as they rise to their feet, silent and still, energy pulsing in the air between them. </p>
<p>Then she flies into his arms, cupping his face in her hands, locking him in a satisfied kiss. He sweeps her half off her feet, an arm around her waste, a hand in her hair. </p>
<p>She falls back with a gasp, and then sees the battle raging out the window. Breaking the embrace, she runs forward. </p>
<p>"There's still time to save the fleet," she says. </p>
<p>"We can do more than that." She turns back to face him. "We can end it all. The war. The Order. The Resistance. The bloodshed." He walks to her, handing her a data pad. "You can save your friends on the fleet. But you saw what I saw. A new order, a balance. No more dark and light, just grey."</p>
<p>Rey inputs the orders into the data pad. </p>
<p>Ben watches her with desperation in his eyes, <i>needing</i> her to say yes, to join him in starting over. </p>
<p>She looks up. "We'll end it. Together. No more death, destruction, fighting."</p>
<p>He nods. </p>
<p>"We'll be together." </p>
<p><i>"Yes,"</i> he gasps. </p>
<p>
  <i>Not alone.</i>
</p>
<p>She reaches up, and kisses him again, and their other kisses were beautiful, but this one is <i>free</i>, and they are free. Rey melts into him, awakened from her exhaustion, finally done <i>waiting.</i> Because someone finally came for her, and it doesn't matter who she was waiting for on Jakku. They cannot hurt her anymore. They cannot help her. Whoever- wherever- they are, Rey does not need them. She has everything she needs, right here, in her arms.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for all the kind feedback! This has been pure pleasure to write.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>What I listened to while writing this fic:</p><p>Come Cover Me (Nightwish)<br/>Ghost Love Score (Nightwish)<br/>The Weight (Amber Run)</p><p>Any other Reylo songs y'all have?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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